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Fat Boy Tin
Fat Boy Tin was a competitor robot that appeared exclusively in Series 4 of Robot Wars. It was easily defeated in its only battle, and did not appear for any other series thereafter. The team later entered Shell Shock into Series 7, which also lost in the first round. Shell Shock also failed to qualify for Series 6, and is often believed to be inspired by a live snail that was found in Fat Boy Tin after its Series 4 battle (see Robot History). Fat Boy Tin's name is most likely a pun on Fatboy Slim, the stage name of English DJ Norman Cook. Design Fat Boy Tin was an exceptionally tall silver robot designed to resemble a humanoid with a smiley face on its 'head' and two pneumatic 'punching' spikes mounted on moveable arms and powered by compressed air. The arms were intended to rotate a full three hundred and sixty degrees and enable Fat Boy Tin to self-right, but this feature was removed as it made the robot overweight. This, combined with its high centre of gravity, ensured its easy defeat against Vercingetorix in Series 4. The robot cost less than £200 in total to build. Qualification In its Series 4 qualifier, Fat Boy Tin was drawn against Knuckles. Fat Boy Tin had a slow start to the battle, with Knuckles opponent using its rotating blades to pierce a few holes in the bodywork. However, both of Knuckles' speed controllers burnt out shortly afterwards, allowing Fat Boy Tin to win the qualifier and secure a place in Series 4. Knuckles, on the other hand, failed to qualify. Robot History Series 4 In its first round battle, Fat Boy Tin faced the twenty-sixth seed Plunderbird 4 and fellow series veteran Vercingetorix. It started by pushing Vercingetorix around the arena, who shoved Fat Boy Tin back and tried to lift it before it pushed Plunderbird 4. Vercingetorix and Plunderbird 4 pushed Fat Boy Tin near Sir Killalot's CPZ, where a combined attack from Plunderbird 4 and Sir Killalot put Fat Boy Tin off balance. The three competitors locked together as Plunderbird 4 grabbed hold of Fat Boy Tin with its claw, before Vercingetorix toppled it over, with Fat Boy Tin briefly leaning against Sir Killalot at one point. Fat Boy Tin was attacked by Sir Killalot and the other House Robots, and flung by the Floor Flipper along with Vercingetorix, who was axing its underside seconds before. Shunt axed the face of Fat Boy Tin, creating a 'ripped-off nose' effect, as Vercingetorix self-righted and 'cease' was called. With this, Fat Boy Tin was eliminated from the Fourth Wars. During the subsequent post-battle interview, a live snail was found inside Fat Boy Tin's chassis, seemingly unharmed by the robot's ordeal. John Lewis explained that Fat Boy Tin was built in his garden, as he could not get it to fit in his shed or garage, and suggested that the snail got into the robot while it was stored under a sheet in the garden. Julia Reed remarked that the snail was the first to have fought in Robot Wars. Results |} Wins/Losses *Wins: 0 *Losses: 1 Series Record Trivia *Excluding Onslaught, which withdrew at the last minute, Fat Boy Tin was the only robot from Bedfordshire to compete in the main competition of Series 4. *Fat Boy Tin was one of the first robots to fight Knuckles, the robot who failed to qualify the most times in Robot Wars history. Category:UK Series competitors Category:Robots from Bedfordshire Category:Robots with Retracting Spears Category:Robots with puns for names Category:Robots to appear in Battle Cards Pack 2 Category:Robots with names from music Category:Robots which debuted in Series 4 Category:Robots which only fought in Series 4 Category:Robots with cameo appearances in Extreme Warriors Season 1 Category:Robots with moving arms Category:Articles in need of rewriting